Maria Eagle: The ninth report of the Prison Service Pay Review Body (PSPRB) (Cm 7802) has been laid before Parliament today. The report makes recommendations on the pay of governing governors and other operational managers, prison officers and related support grades in public sector prisons in England and Wales in 2010. Copies of the report are available on the www.ome.uk .com/review.cfm?body=2. I am grateful to the chairman and members of the review body for their hard work in producing these recommendations.
	The recommendations covering the headline award include:
	A 1 per cent. consolidated increase to the maximum point of all pay scales for the remit group;
	An additional 0.5 per cent. for senior officers (giving a 1.5 per cent. increase in total) to ensure a pay differential which offers a greater incentive for prison officers to seek promotion;
	A 1 per cent. uplift to the required hours addition (RHA), where payable, to senior managers D and managers E to G;
	Endorsement of proposals to ensure probationers recruited from 1 April 2009 are eligible for their first increment after no more than 15 months;
	No changes to the rate of any of the main allowances (e.g. specialist, tornado, payment plus); and
	No change to the rates of local pay.
	I can confirm that the headline awards recommended by PSPRB will be accepted in full.
	The pay review body also recommended, on affordability grounds, that NOMS should not proceed with targeted investment to support pay reform such as the further scale compression. However, after careful consideration we have concluded that the planned targeted investment in pay reforms are both affordable within the current NOMS budget and necessary for achieving long-term efficiency improvements. NOMS will therefore proceed with the measures effective from 1 April 2010.